1937 marks the emergence of Lyudmila Pavlichenko as more than a student: after passing the entrance exams for Kyiv State University, she travels with friends to a shooting range to celebrate, where a determined and nearly perfect shooter among them, Lyudmila Pavlichenko earns attention. Her flawless marks catch the eye of the Red Army, which invites her into a sharpshooting program. A Jewish doctor named Boris courts her, but she rejects his advances and instead heads to the Eastern Front after the German invasion begins, stepping onto a harsher stage where every shot carries weight and consequence.
Lyudmila’s path soon twists toward an unexpected partnership: she becomes the ward of a grizzled veteran sniper, Vilen Babichev as Makarov. Their relationship is complicated—he does not return her affection and reveals that he has lost his family to the war—yet a bond forms under fire. Her companions shift as she reconnects with Masha, now a nurse with a young pilot, and the trio threads through the siege-scarred landscape. When Odessa is threatened, Lyudmila is wounded and Makarov drags her to safety into a local hospital where Boris has volunteered his services as a doctor. Upon waking, she secures papers with Boris’s help to return to the front, only to learn that Makarov has fallen in battle and the Soviet defense has fallen back to Sevastopol.
Back on the line, Lyudmila is paired with another sniper, Yevgeni Tsyganov taking the name Leonid Kitsenko. What begins as professional work soon tilts toward a complicated romance, as she begins to wound enemies not just to win but to see them suffer, unsettling her new partner. Masha, now serving as a frontline nurse, invites them to her wedding, only to reveal the death of her fiancé, deepening Lyudmila’s longing for a different future and prompting her to tell Leonid, in a private moment, that she wants a son. The emotional stakes rise as the war’s grind presses in.
A patrol across a field ends in tragedy when Leonid steps on a mine that triggers a flare, drawing artillery fire onto their position. Lyudmila wakes in a field hospital again, and Boris informs her that Leonid did not survive the ambush. Still, the front line calls, and she is ordered to eliminate a top enemy sniper for Soviet propaganda. The duel endures for a full day; at last, she emerges from cover, exposed and tired, yet she locates and kills the adversary. As Sevastopol comes under siege and evacuations begin, Boris carries a wounded and psychologically scarred Lyudmila to a submarine evacuating the city, aided by the fact that he has given her his own papers to leave. A voiceover reveals the tragedy of Boris, Masha, and countless others who perished defending the city.
Lyudmila’s extraordinary exploits become a potent propaganda instrument for the Soviet Union, sending her around the globe to fund the fight against fascism. Her story intersects with international figures, from a meeting with the American First Lady, Joan Blackham portraying Eleanor Roosevelt, to a controversial moment in New York where she attempts to embrace femininity in a public dress—only to be ordered back into a Red Army uniform by the propaganda machine, leaving a lasting impression on a largely male audience. The crowd is moved, and a living legend begins to take shape as Viacheslav Nikolenko captures her story in song, Woody Guthrie penning a ballad inspired by her feats.
As the war ends, Roosevelt’s later visit to Moscow in 1957 marks a quieter, intimate coda to Lyudmila’s saga. The two attend the opera together, with Lyudmila’s son by her side—an implicit link to Leonid—suggesting that the choices made in war have echoes of family and legacy that endure long after the last shot is fired. The film blends formidable combat sequences with personal loss, public triumphs, and a poignant meditation on courage, memory, and the human costs of war.
> "Don't you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for too long?"
